Exploration · 1519–1522
First circumnavigation of the Earth
Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain (departure and return port)
Five ships and about 270 men left Spain on 20 September 1519 under the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, seeking a western route to the Spice Islands (the Moluccas). The fleet entered the strait now named after Magellan on 1 November 1520 and crossed the Pacific in 98 days, but Magellan was killed fighting Lapu-Lapu's forces at Mactan in the Philippines in April 1521.
Juan Sebastián Elcano brought the last ship, the Victoria, home around Africa on 6 September 1522 with just 18 of the original crew aboard.
Why it mattered
The voyage, the first by Europeans across the Pacific, revealed the vast size of that ocean and proved that ships could sail around the world by a western sea route.
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